[SBB] Northern Waterthrush Addendum and White-throated Sparrow

[Bill Bousman <[[email protected]]>]

Folks:

This morning, 1/17/07, I enjoyed watching the "white" NORTHERN 
WATERTHRUSH that Bob Reiling mentioned in his recent post.  After 5 
winters of chasing the secretive bird in Charleston Marsh, it was a 
delight to watch this unconcerned bird.  When I first passed the area 
of the lone eucalyptus on the east side of Stevens Creek above 
Crittenden Lane, I neither saw nor heard the waterthrush.  But about 
another 20 m upstream, I heard the bird's chip and walked back.  As I 
enjoyed close views with the sun behind me, Bob and Frank arrived and 
also had good views.

Bob and Frank then went on their way to search for other delights and 
I continued upstream almost to La Avenida.  On my way back, at the 
north end of Moffett housing, I found the "yellow" NORTHERN 
WATERTHRUSH along the creek edge.  This bird was not quite so 
cooperative, but still easier to see than the one in Charleston Marsh.

Along the creek here, I saw a male Mallard with a 4-5 inch fish in 
its bill.  It struggled for 3-4 minutes trying to find some way to 
swallow it.  A nearby Great Egret followed along behind and the 
Mallard seemed to split its time between moving away from the egret 
and trying to swallow the fish.  A couple of times it dropped it in 
the water, then picked it up again.  No merganser skills here, 
eventually it gave up, and the waiting egret picked it out of the 
water and swallowed it in one gulp.

Back at the end of Crittenden Lane, I noticed that there were a 
couple of puddles at the gate that provides access to the Shoreline 
overflow lot on concert days.  I assume that these are temporary 
puddles from last night's rain.  At about 1030 hr, the sun was 
shining strongly on the coyotebrush edge here and there were dozens 
of birds bathing and foraging nearby.  In the puddles were 
White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows, House Finches, and Lesser 
Goldfinches.  Nearby was a fairly shy WHITE-THROATED 
SPARROW.  Although you cannot leave your car here I doubt that anyone 
will hassle you for sitting in the comfort of your car watching a 
bunch of naked birds bathe.

Bill Bousman
Santa Clara County records compiler 



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